Dr. Dawna Ballard

Associate Professor
CMA 7.110
512-471-1946
FAX: 512-471-3504
diballard@mail.utexas.edu

Dr. Dawna Ballard (Ph.D., University of California at Santa Barbara, 2002) examines time and work with particular attention to the ways in which time shapes and is shaped by a range of communication processes. She has studied the relationship between time-management behaviors (including multi-tasking and flexible work arrangements) and important organizational outcomes (including job satisfaction, relational quality, and communication overload) as well as the broader communication issues associated with non-standard work practices (such as telework, virtual teams, temps, and part-time employment). Her current projects explore the communication overhead associated with technologically emergent multitasking and the (entrained) patterns of interaction that shape and are shaped by our time-bound activities (such as regular appointments, meetings, and tasks). Her published research appears in journals such as Communication Monographs, Communication Research, Management Communication Quarterly, and Communication Yearbook as well as interdisciplinary edited volumes such as The Study of Time XII: Time and Memory and Research in the Sociology of Work: Volume 17 Work Place Temporalities. She currently serves on the editorial board of Communication Research Reports and is a council member of the International Society for the Study of Time. She participated in a recent research symposium, It's About Time: Increasing the Temporal Focus in Organizational Research, held at the University of Maastricht by METEOR and the Department of Organization & Strategy. She teaches courses on chronemics, organizational and group communication, and co-supervises the internship program.